Objective: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the students' choice of activities and perception of a cocurricular program (CCP). Attitude and skill development and areas for program improvement were also assessed.
Methods: Data were evaluated from 2 sources: a student survey administered to all Doctor of Pharmacy students to determine student perceptions of the CCP and barriers to success and student activity reporting data from postexperience submissions to evaluate the CCP.
Background: In resource-limited countries, access to specialized health care services such as dermatology is limited. Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) offer innovative solutions to address this challenge. However, the implementation of CDSSs is commonly associated with unique challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Recently, there have been calls to action to address curricular expansion, including modifying standards, using curricular analytics, and optimizing interdisciplinary collaboration, all of which focus on program-level changes. The primary objective of this study was to describe how the process of backward design can be used as a strategy to reduce curricular expansion at the individual course level while maintaining student performance and decreasing student and coordinator stress.
Methods: Backward design was applied to a large, interdisciplinary, team-taught pharmacotherapy course to identify opportunities to reduce content volume and align assessment content with course objectives.
The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Council of Faculties commissioned a task force during the 2021-2022 academic year to examine the problem of curricular overload. As a result of this task force and the Academy-wide discussions around curricular overload, a consensus has formed around the significance of defining and addressing this challenge. Many institutions have begun work on identifying solutions to curricular overload.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Traditional methods used to evaluate changes in kidney function to identify acute kidney injury (AKI) have significant limitations. Damage biomarkers can identify patients at risk for AKI prior to changes in kidney function. While clinical trials have shown that biomarker-guided treatment can improve outcomes, whether these biomarkers can influence providers' choice of treatment strategy for risk prediction, surveillance, or diagnostic evaluation in clinical practice is uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Damage biomarkers are helpful in early identification of patients who are at risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI). Investigations are ongoing to identify the optimal role of stress/damage biomarkers in clinical practice regarding AKI risk prediction, surveillance, diagnosis, and prognosis.
Objective: To determine the impact of utilizing a clinical decision support system (CDSS) to guide stress biomarker testing in intensive care unit (ICU) patients at risk for drug-induced acute kidney injury (D-AKI).
Background: In emerging market countries in sub-Saharan Africa, access to specialty services such as dermatology is limited. Teledermatology is an innovative solution to address this issue; however, many initiatives have been tried without sustained success. Recently, WhatsApp has been used as a store-and-forward telemedicine communication platform for consultation and education in Botswana.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: An understanding of the prevalence patterns of skin diseases in children in Botswana is needed to guide national dermatological policy development, training, and resource allocation to improve patient care.
Objective: To describe local skin disease patterns in children aged 0-18 years presenting for dermatologic care in Botswana.
Methods: A retrospective review of records from 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2016 was conducted at the outpatient dermatology clinic of Princess Marina Hospital (PMH) in Gaborone, Botswana and outreach clinic sites.
Background: Oculocutaneous albinism is disproportionately prevalent in Africa; however, the medical and psychosocial characteristics of people living with albinism (PWA) in Botswana have not been studied.
Objective: To characterize the demographics, health-related factors, sun-protective behaviors, and psychosocial challenges of PWA in Botswana.
Methods: Overall, 50 PWA and 99 patients without albinism (non-PWA) were recruited and surveyed.
Background: Representative images of pathology in patients with skin of color are lacking in most medical education resources. This particularly affects training in dermatology, which relies heavily on the use of images to teach pattern recognition. The presentation of skin pathology can vary greatly among different skin tones, and this lack of representation of dark skin phototypes challenges providers' abilities to provide quality care to patients of color.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeople with albinism (PWA) in Africa suffer many challenges, including higher risk of skin cancers and deeply embedded stigma. We conducted interviews with PWA to determine factors influencing their quality of life (QOL) in Botswana. Physical concerns expressed included skin/eye health issues and limited access to health care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors reviewed outpatients in a tertiary dermatology clinic in Botswana to expand knowledge on patterns of skin disease in this population with a high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Approximately one-third of new and follow-up patients were HIV positive. Common dermatologic conditions included eczematous eruptions, viral and fungal infections, malignant neoplasms, vascular disorders, disorders of pigmentation, and mechanical/physical injury-related disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: People with albinism (PWA) are at increased risk of photodamage and skin cancer. In many parts of Africa, there is a significant lack of knowledge regarding albinism which can lead to societal stigma, discrimination, and persecution from an early age. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there is limited clinical data on PWA and skin cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is an HIV-associated skin cancer that is highly prevalent in Botswana and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Histopathology-confirmed diagnosis is required for chemotherapeutic interventions in Botswana, which creates barriers to care because of limited biopsy and pathology services. We sought to understand the role a dermatology specialist can play in improving KS care through quality improvement (QI) initiatives to reduce histologic turnaround times (TATs) for KS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Primary cutaneous lymphoma (PCL) represents a heterogeneous collection of non-Hodgkin lymphomas originating in the skin. Our study describes the clinical and histological findings of cutaneous lymphoma within Botswana to expand the paucity of data on this rare disease in sub-Saharan Africa.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review from the dermatology clinic at Princess Marina Hospital (Gaborone, Botswana) of patients evaluated by skin biopsy for cutaneous lymphoma between 2008 and 2017.
Telemedicine is well established as a means of providing high-quality healthcare at a distance, particularly to patients in underserved populations. Technologies in teledermatology can be used to complement traditional methodologies of clinical trials, expanding accessibility of trials to people typically unable to participate in research. Tools of communication technology may enhance many aspects of clinical trials in dermatology, from recruitment and retention of participants to collection of real-time data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is a paucity of data describing autoimmune skin diseases in sub-Saharan Africa and in HIV positive cohorts. We describe the incidence of autoimmune skin diseases in public dermatology clinics in Botswana.
Methods: New patient records from public dermatology clinics were reviewed retrospectively for the period of September 2008 to December 2015.
A two-year-old boy presented with a large, non-healing ulceration on his left buttock, which was originally noted as a brown patch present at birth. Punch skin biopsy was performed and histopathology revealed an atypical, pleomorphic, spindled proliferation in whorled fascicles replacing the dermis and trapping fat in the subcutis, consistent with a diagnosis of congenital/infantile fibrosarcoma. No evidence of metastatic spread was seen on imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatr Dermatol
October 2015
Neutrophilic panniculitis is a rare adverse effect of therapy with selective BRAF inhibitors. We report a case of neutrophilic panniculitis in a 15-year-old girl receiving treatment with vemurafenib for a brainstem glioma. Clinicians should be aware of this rare but important side effect of vemurafenib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present the case of an 8-year-old girl who presented with distal extremity necrosis of the hands, feet, nose, and ears as an acute manifestation of cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa (CPAN). She was emergently managed with intravenous steroids, nifedipine, sildenafil, pentoxifylline, nitroglycerin paste, aspirin, low-molecular-weight heparin, and intravenous gamma globulin. The necrosis was controlled, and reperfusion was attained to salvage the extremities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Primary cutaneous small- to medium-sized CD4+ pleomorphic T-cell lymphoma (PCSM-TCL) is a rare and provisional subcategory of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, associated with a favorable prognosis. We present five cases of PCSM-TCL and review the literature to address questions surrounding its diagnosis and treatment.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 353 patients with non-mycosis fungoides cutaneous lymphomas evaluated at the M.